Princeton University Athletics
March-ing Towards A Weekend Of Madness
February 27, 2006 | General
Feb. 27, 2006
It's a dream weekend for a fan of Princeton athletics. Twenty teams will sport the Orange and Black this weekend, some looking to extend their seasons, while others hope to get theirs off on the right foot. While the women's hockey team begins its march towards a potential national title, the men's lacrosse team will travel to the home of the defending champion. The women's basketball will play its biggest home weekend in years, while the men's swimming team is looking for a bit of the magic from its female peers. And then there is the final chase for history by Yasser El Halaby.
Here is a weekend roadmap for those who want to follow along.
Thursday
The men's swimming and diving team will look to ignite the weekend the same way the Princeton women did last weekend, with a quick surge into first place. The Princeton men, like the women, will enter the 2006 EISL championships as an underdog to Harvard. The Crimson won the 2005 title and topped Princeton in a tri-meet earlier in the season, but the Tigers have veteran leadership from the likes of Will Reinhardt and Meir Hasbani, both of whom are multiple EISL champions. The EISL championships will be decided over a three-day session, and a day-one lead for the Tigers would help their charge for a third title in four years.
Friday
We'll start on the ice, where two Princeton teams begin their postseasons at either the northern point or the southern point of the ECAC Hockey League.
The men's team can be found on the northern end, where they will begin a best-of-3 first-round series with Clarkson at 7 p.m. The Tigers split their season series with Clarkson, including a road overtime loss in Potsdam. The last time these teams met in a playoff series was 2000, when Clarkson took a pair of one-goal games from Princeton. Relying on the goaltending of Eric Leroux and a balanced offensive attack, led by top scorer Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, the Tigers will look to draw first blood at one of the toughest arenas in the league.
The southern end of the league will be defended by the second-seeded Princeton women's hockey team. The Tigers are seeking a fifth trip to the ECAC Frozen Four when they open a quarterfinal series (Baker Rink, 7 p.m.) against seventh-seeded Colgate, a team Princeton swept this season. Led by a blend of experienced senior leaders and hungry, talented underclassmen, Princeton will look to extend its seven-game win streak and move one step closer to an ECAC semifinal berth.
Both basketball teams will have critical nights, especially the women's squad. Trailing Brown by one game in the loss column, Princeton will have the chance to even its standing when it hosts the Bears Friday night, 7 p.m., at Jadwin Gym. Plagued by a slow start in Providence earlier this season, Princeton fell to Brown by two points that night, but the Tigers are rolling after one of its best weekends ever, a road-sweep of preseason favorite Dartmouth and always-difficult Harvard. A win would put Princeton on the verge of its first Ivy title since 1999, while a loss would eliminate the Tigers.
The men will travel to Brown after putting on arguably its best performance of the season, a 75-48 home win over Harvard. The senior leadership of Scott Greenman has been invaluable to Princeton this season, and he'll be looking to start off his final road weekend with another winning performance. At the same time, he'll be hoping for a little Yale magic; the Bulldogs host Penn, which leads Princeton by two games with three to play, including the season finale at Princeton next week. The Tigers can make up one game that day, but they'll need help for the other.
The men's swimming and diving team will continue its championship weekend, and the baseball and softball teams will both begin their runs to potential Ivy League titles. While league play is still a while away, the 2006 seasons begin for both teams in the Carolinas. The baseball team will play a four-game series at The Citadel beginning Friday at 6 p.m.; led by ace Erik Stiller, Princeton will look to get back to the league championship series after a one-year absence. The softball team will play five games at the North Carolina Tar Heel Invitational, where ace Erin Snyder will begin her final year on the rubber for Princeton. Threatening every major pitching record in the book, Snyder hopes her final season will end with another Ivy League title.
If a title is on the horizon for men's volleyball, it knows which familiar foe will be standing in the way. The Tigers will compete with preseason favorite Penn State in a 7:00 showdown at State College, Pa. The young Tigers have already shown an ability to win tough road matches, claiming a 3-2 win at Juniata.
Both squash teams begin their chase for individual glory in Amherst, Mass., as both the men's and women's national championships will be held. While players from both teams hold high dreams, the eyes of the squash world will be focused on the No. 2 seed in the men's draw. Princeton's Yasser El Halaby is looking for history, as he stands five wins away from becoming the only male player to win four national titles. The first two rounds of both draws will be held Friday.
Saturday
Both hockey teams will hope to either win or extend their playoff series, while both squash teams will continue their individual tournaments with quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Men's swimming and diving will compete in its final day of the EISL championships, where it will look to complete an improbable Princeton sweep in the pool.
Men's and women's basketball will both compete against Yale, with the women's team remaining home and the men traveling to New Haven, Conn. Depending on Friday's results, both games will take on varying levels of importance in the league races, but as countless other sports have shown, few rivalries in the Ivy League match that of Princeton and Yale.
Lacrosse will take center stage Saturday, as both teams travel to Baltimore for a doubleheader at Johns Hopkins. The men will open the day at 2:00 against the top-ranked and defending NCAA champion Blue Jays. While Hopkins returns plenty of talent from its 2005 championship team, Princeton brings a top-ranked class of freshmen and a set of returners who are determined to make their way back to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers opened their season last weekend with a 16-6 win over Canisius and look forward to their first major test of the season.
The women's team is ranked third in the Inside Lacrosse media preseason poll and will open its 2006 season at ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins following the men's game. Having competed in eight straight NCAA tournaments, Princeton will look to veteran standouts Kathleen Miller, Lauren Vance and 2005 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Katie Lewis-Lamonica to push Princeton to a big season-opening victory. Both the men's and women's games can be seen live on ESPNU.
The men's track and field team, fresh off a second-place performance at last weekend's Heptagonal championships, will head to Boston for the 2006 IC4A Championships. Likewise, Cack Ferrell will lead the women's team to Boston for the ECAC Championships with hopes of claiming a team title to highlight the winter season.
The women's water polo team will open its Southern Division season with a pair of home games, starting with a 2:30 p.m. showdown against George Washington. The Tigers will also host Bucknell at 6:30 in Denunzio Pool. The men's tennis team will also look to defend its home court when it welcomes Stony Brook for a 1 p.m. showdown.
And the postseason will begin for both the fencing and wrestling teams. NCAA Regionals will open for both fencing teams Saturday morning at 8 a.m. in Durham, N.C. Fencers will be selected for the championships this weekend, and several members of the Orange and Black are expected to make the trip south. The wrestling team will begin its competition for the EIWA championship as well on Saturday; while a team title is unlikely, several wrestlers are hoping for deep individual runs and potential berths into the NCAA championships. One Princeton wrestler to watch is 174-pounder Matt DeNichilo, who has shined in his senior season and could be a dark horse to make a deep run.
Sunday
Worn down yet? There's still one more day left.
Both the track and wrestling teams will complete their weekend championships with several individuals hoping to leave with titles. If either hockey team is still playing, it will be a tense showdown with the winning team staying alive in the bid for an ECAC title.
The women's tennis team will play its only match of the weekend at 11 a.m. at the University of Maryland. Standing at 4-3 on the season, the Tigers will be looking to continue moving forward as they approach Ivy League play.
Finally, the last day of the college squash season will be held in Amherst, Mass. If all goes well, it will also be the final match in the historic career of El Halaby, who, if form holds, will play top-ranked Siddharth Suchde for the national title. El Halaby has defeated Suchde in each of the last two national tournaments, but the Harvard junior bounced back this season for a 3-0 home win over El Halaby. A final showdown would be a climactic end to a crazy season, as well as a potential exclamation point on the career of El Halaby.
Twenty teams. Championships being decided. Dreams being extended. Seasons being opened.
It's all coming this weekend - March at its maddest.